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Æ30 - Elagabalus ΒΙΘΥΝΙΕΩΝ ΑΔΡΙΑΝΩΝ

Issuer Bithynium Claudiopolis (Bithynia and Pontus)
Year 218-222
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Shape Round (irregular)
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Obverse description Radiate and draped bust of the emperor Elagabalus facing left, depicted in three-quarter view from the front, with right hand raised in salutation and left hand holding a sceptre. The effigy is rendered in the provincial Greek style typical of Bithynian civic coinage of the early third century AD. The obverse legend encircles the bust, identifying the emperor by his adopted dynastic nomenclature.
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Mintage ND (218-222)
Additional information

Bithynium — refounded and renamed Claudiopolis in honor of Claudius, though local coinage continued invoking the Hadrianic civic title long after — was the birthplace of Antinous, Hadrian's famously beloved companion whose death in the Nile in 130 AD triggered an empire-wide deification cult. The city milked that connection aggressively, and the ΑΔΡΙΑΝΩΝ ethnic in the legend reflects the honorific status Hadrian personally granted the community. That a city so defined by its association with one emperor was still advertising the fact under Elagabalus, nearly a century later, says something about the durability of civic prestige politics in the Greek east.

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